On-Air Highlights

King's Last March

In the segregated South, black garbage workers stood on the lowest rung of the social order. Martin Luther King Jr. died while lending help to garbage collectors in Memphis, Tennessee who were fighting for equal rights.

King went to Memphis in the spring of 1968. Black sanitation workers had been on strike since February, protesting low wages and miserable working conditions. James Lawson, a long-time civil rights activist and a Memphis minister, asked his friend King to come help. Lawson was leading community efforts to support the striking workers. But negotiations with Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb were stalled. As the strike dragged on, Lawson thought the garbage workers needed backing from a national figure like King.

Join us for King's Last March Wednesday April 4 at 2:00pm on WITF 89.5 and 93.3.

Also, on WITF TV Henry Louis Gates, Jr. looks at the last 50 years of African-American history -- from Stokely Carmichael to Barack Obama, James Brown to Beyoncé -- charting the remarkable progress made and raising hard questions about the obstacles that remain. Watch Black American Since MLK: And Still IRise April 3 and 4 at 9:00pm.

Stay Connected

A partner of

The official registration and financial information of WITF may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll free, within Pennsylvania, (800) 732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.